The present invention relates to a wire management apparatus for use in a harness fabrication machine. More particularly, it relates to a wire guide apparatus for reciprocably changing the centerline spacings of adjacent wires in a discrete wire cable segment between at least two distinct pitches.
Harness fabrication machines are widely used today. Generally, harness fabricators are employed to terminate a plurality of wires in the form of either insulation-clad discrete wires or ribbon cable to multicircuit electrical connectors. An illustrative harness fabrication machine for automated mass-termination of discrete wires to insulation displacement contact connectors is described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,015.
Wire guide means for positioning wires in proper alignment for termination in harness fabrication equipment are also known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,041 a wire comb is mounted adjacent the termination station. The comb includes a number of parallel wire receiving channels through which the ends of a plurality of insulation clad wires are threaded. The wire comb is reciprocably moveable in an axial direction with respect to the wires. Prior to termination, the wire comb is moved towards the termination station, thereby combing, i.e. straightening and spacing, the wire ends in proper alignment so that a termination blade can readily mass-insert the wire ends into the insulation displacement slots of a connector. The wire guide apparatus disclosed in this patent does not provide a structure which permits the centerline spacing of the wires to be changed from one pitch to another, for example, to provide a continuous harness fabrication operation, wherein a variety of different connectors can be used having differing terminal centerline spacings, without interrupting production.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,628 describes a connector jig apparatus which includes a stacked linear array of web splitting fingers including a central rectangular cut-out portion adapted to receive an insulation displacement connector. The web-splitting fingers extend above the top surface of a nested connector on opposed sides and terminate in free ends defined by tapered cutting edges. The jig is used with flat ribbon cable to sever the web between individual cable conductors, and as the cable is forced downwardly toward the connector, the fingers spread apart, thereby re-spacing the separated individual conductors to a wider centerline spacing appropriate for termination to the connector terminals. In an alternate embodiment, the jig apparatus can accomplish sequential termination of identical pitch connectors which differ from each other in terms of circuit size, i.e., circuit number. The jig apparatus described in this patent cannot be used to accomplish smooth, continuous wire spacing transistors for discrete wire from a closer spacing to a wider spacing and back again, for the purpose of terminating the wires to different connectors which contain terminals set at different centerline spacings.